Halsey becomes first solo woman to top Billboard 200 chart in 2017

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. pop singer Halsey scored her first No.1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with "Hopeless Fountain Kingdom," making her the first solo female artist to top the album chart in 2017, according to data on Monday from Nielsen SoundScan.

Halsey, 22, who shot to international fame last year as the featured singer on The Chainsmokers' hit summer single "Closer," sold 105,000 units of her second studio album.

The last woman to top the Billboard 200 was Lady Gaga in November 2016 with "Joanne," Billboard said. Sales for Katy Perry's heavily-promoted new album "Witness" will be tallied next week.

Kendrick Lamar's "Damn." held onto second place on the Billboard 200 with 72,000 more units sold in its eighth week, while The Beatles extended their chart comeback with a further 44,000 sales for 50th anniversary remastered "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which dipped from 3rd to the No.4 spot.

The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

On the digital songs chart, which measures online single sales, Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" featuring Justin Bieber held onto the top spot for a fifth week with another 140,0000 copies sold.